The Four Tusked Elephant

 

Toulmin's Model of Argument of the text 'The Four Tusked Elephant'

Claim

Coincidences play an important role in determining the success or failure of a mission.

 

Ground

Denis had stopped his journey after he and his pygmies companions saw even a big elephant having only two tusks. But after few months, the first coincidence occurred when he revisited the pygmy’s country. There he again heard about the elephant in a talk of Belgian seuers. The next coincidence occurred when Denis was driving back to his camp where he found a skull of a fully grown elephant.

 

Warrant

The first and second coincidences led Denis to find about the elephants as it fueled him with proof and positive energy to continue his abandoned mission.

 

Backing

Due to the first coincidence, Denis was able to figure out that an African had sold four tusks to a Greek trader and insisted that he had taken it from a single dead elephant. Denis found the African and bribed him to bring the skull. He also wrote to the warehouse where four tusks were sent. Due to the second coincidence, Armand finally got one of the proof to verify this hypothesis. Thinking that he had lost the skull of elephant and the tusks he had gathered now proved nothing, he was sure had failed. This coincidence helped him gain his confidence to work in his mission again.

 

Rebuttals

The hard work and dedication towards the goal far outlines the importance of coincidence.

 

Qualifier

More often, it is the coincidence that guides the path to reach the goal when hard work and dedication aren’t sufficient Armand Denis had put his heart and soul in his mission. But only coincidences led his quest to completion by providing required proof and motivation.